J28 



ROCK-TRACINGS. 



ask himself, To what epoch do these earlier rock-tracings 

 belong' to the so-called stone, bronze, or iron age ? Unfortu- 

 nately, nothing can positively settle the question. Scholars 

 who have made them their special study do not agree ; and 

 we know that graves of the stone age have been found with 

 tracings, but not of human figures. 1 



But many of the tracings show that even at that remote 

 period cattle were known to the inhabitants, and the existence 

 of the plough conclusively shows that the people cultivated 

 the soil. 



The frequent appearance of swords on the rock-tracings 

 shows that they could not have been made during the stone 

 age, in which swords were unknown ; but there are several 



O " 



indications that the tracings were made before the iron age, 

 and that they probably belong to the bronze age. 2 





Fig 903. Ship on ;i ruck-tracing at Lb'keberg in Foss parish, Bohusla'n. T ' 5 real size. 



This art of tracing seems to have been earlier than that of 

 writing runes, for not one of these peculiar representations, 

 numbering several hundreds of different sizes, have runic 

 characters upon them. 



They are very primitive, and in several cases plainly show 

 that modesty was not one of the characteristic traits of the 

 people. 3 The first impression gathered on seeing them is that 

 they belonged to a people of low civilisation, who must have 



1 The finest example of those without 

 ti u;u res is to be seen in the Museum of 

 St. Germain near Paris. 



2 See 'Land of the Midnight Sun,' 



vol. i., p. 355. 



3 Several representations, on account 

 of their coarseness, are not as correct in 

 the illustrations as they should be. 



